39/45 : The War Years

Most of us were born in the war or the following decade. Some of us find the subject interesting or nostalgic, and others want to forget it. This group will be about life in the war and how it has been portrayed.

We will see 1939/45 through books (mainly fiction), films, and visits to places. The book list is endless (and many became films) – Mary Wesley’s Camomile Lawn, Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair, Sarah Waters’ The Night Watch, RF Delderfield’s The Avenue goes to War. There are films like The Pianist, The Cranes are Flying (Russian), Casablanca, and Dunkirk.

Places to see can be the Churchill War Rooms, Bletchley Park, a London blitz walk, and the Chislehurst Caves. And museums like the London Museum and the Imperial War Museum. We can look at Mass Observation, or the Hornsey Journal.

This list is to show the sort of way we may approach the subject. But it’s up to the people who join the group.